Why People Buy Online
In considering why people buy online it is important not to jump to conclusions when devising marketing strategies. Pitching to penny-pinching shoppers looking for the cheapest price won’t generate much of a profit, if indeed any profit. If you focus on them your business is highly unlikely to have much of a future. You will be on the road to insolvency in no time at all. Far better to look beyond the price when determining why people buy online. This excellent article by Steve Lindhorst, author of “Selling On The River” and “Amazon – The Quick And Dirty Guide” highlights one of the main reasons why people buy online, namely convenience:
Penny-pinching shoppers won’t help you earn much (if any) profit. So don’t give in to them. Don’t get into the habit of lowering prices just to grab a few quick sales. Competing on price hurts you and the market you’re selling in. It’s a losing proposition.
With gas at nearly $4 per gallon in the U.S. the fuel savings alone make people want to shop online. Do the math. If I saved the price of one gallon of gas per week for a year, I’d have around $200 extra to spend.
And think about the time. Driving from store to store to find things. Some people are realizing the benefits of doing all of their holiday shopping online. Even if they pay a little more than retail, they can still save money overall when considering the fuel costs, and the cost of the time involved.
You may have heard the recent news that Amazon is positioned to become a serious player in the home improvement market. With Amazon Prime, and Super-Saver Shipping, Amazon can provide next-day delivery in many cases. You can bet the buyers will weigh the convenience vs. cost and opt for convenience when they can just go online and get what they need, delivered to the front door.
As Steve rightly says, competing on price is not a smart strategy. Who doesn’t agree that applies to off-line as well as on-line businesses?
There are so many reasons – besides the price – that people buy online, we should never have to stoop to lower and lower prices.
Let the price-droppers have the next sale or two. They’ll sell out with little profit to re-stock. Then you can continue to charge a fair, market-based prices for your items.
But if you ever feel like your sales are sliding simply because your prices are too high, reflect on what you offer. Just think of the great service you provide for all of the procrastinating, nostalgic, secret-psycho-clowns of the world. Now that is real value.
You can read the rest of this excellent article here: http://www.multichannelsurfer.com/9-non-price-related-reasons-people-buy-online-9/
As well as convenience, Steve covers eight other reasons why people buy online which you can catch up on via the link to his article. Do yourself a favour and catch up with those reasons and resist that temptation to sell yourself and your business short with excessive use of loss leading offers. Don’t forget to send us your comments directly too, either here in the Comments box or through one of our Social Media platforms.
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